1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to receptacles for storing articles and, more particularly, is concerned with a ball retriever and storage unit which is collapsible for ease of shipping and storage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is conventional in practicing games such as tennis or golf to repetitively hit a large number of balls in order to improve one's skills in different facets of the game. To minimize the time and effort it takes to retrieve and hold the balls, receptacles having wire or rod type frame designs are typically used. Representative of the prior art receptacles of this general design are the ones disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. to Minton (704,848), Stap (3,371,950), Seewagen et al (3,820,836), Campbell (3,889,996), Brunner et al (3,984,138), Ouhashi (4,194,779), Verde (4,412,697) and Perez et al (4,461,504), and a British Patent to Hammond et al (24,322).
One highly successful tennis ball retriever and storage unit of this general design, hereinafter referred to as the prior art unit, is marketed by Ball Hopper Products of Pittsburgh, Pa., and illustrated in the Ballhopper court equipment catalog. The prior art unit is a generally square or rectangular receptacle constructed of a plurality of spaced metal wires or small diameter rods (both of which for sake of clarity and convenience are hereinafter referred to as "wire"), affixed such as by spot welding to one another at assembly to form a rigid "box-shaped" structure. The bottom and sides are rigidly connected together, whereas the top is in the form of an openable hinged gate. The wires are spaced apart by an amount less than the diameter of a used tennis ball to retain the stored tennis balls within the receptacle.
The integral rigid bottom of the receptacle forms a grate wherein the wires are also spaced apart slightly less than the diameter of a used tennis ball. The spacing of the grate wires allows easy retrieval of tennis balls from a tennis court and into the receptacle through the spaces between the grate wires. The receptacle is simply placed over balls resting on a tennis court and pushed downward on the court surface. Automatically the balls are squeezed upward between pairs of the bottom grate wires and so forced into the receptacle. Balls already in the receptacle are raised by the incoming balls. All of the retrieved balls are retained in the receptacle until manually poured or removed from the top of the receptacle upon opening of the top hinged gate.
This prior art unit is of economical and simple construction and does not utilize any moving parts for retrieving the balls. It is conveniently and easily usable for retrieving tennis balls and easily manually carried for transporting the retrieved balls to and from a storage area when not in use. At the same time, the top hinged gate of the prior art unit permits ready removal of the balls from storage when desired.
The prior art unit also includes upwardly extending handles removably and pivotally mounted to opposite ends of respective hollow tubes affixed horizontally to the vertical wires of two of the opposite sides of the receptacle. The handle length permits a standing person to raise and lower the receptacle from and against the tennis court playing surface by its handles and thus avoid any substantial bending at the waist. Also, the handles can readily be pivoted 180 degrees relative to the sides of the receptacle from their retrieving position to a supporting position without dismounting them from the receptacle, and thereby transformed into support legs for the receptacle. In the supporting position, the legs dispose the receptacle at a height convenient for easy removal of balls from the receptacle by a tennis player, again without bending at the waist.
However, the rigid, fixed assembly-type receptacle of the prior art unit occupies a volume which is mostly empty space. This causes the packaging, handling, shipping and storage by the supplier to be more costly and cumbersome than it would otherwise be if the box configuration could be rearranged into a more space-efficient form until it arrives at the retailer or the final purchaser's destination. The retailer who often has only limited space available for storage and display of products is handicapped by the relatively large boxes required to pack the receptacles. When not in use and when being transported by the purchaser, the fixed unit is bulky. Basically, the fixed-type nature of the unit increases its vulnerability to damage during both shipment and storage.
Several approaches either can be or have been tried to alleviate some of these problems. One approach to achieving a space-efficient unit would be to provide separate parts representing the sides, top and bottom. This, however, would require the user to properly assemble the various components and thus would reduce its marketability. In another approach used in the prior art unit, space problems of the rigid receptacle have been addressed to a degree by sloping the sides so that the cross section progressively increases from the bottom to the top. This allows the option of nesting several receptacle, typically three, which can then be placed in one package, larger than a single unit package, but somewhat smaller in volume than the sum of three separate single unit packages. Detracting from the limited benefit in space saving, nesting increases the potential for both packing and shipping damage.
Consequently, in view of the disadvantages of the space-saving approaches suggested above, a need still exists for another approach to reducing the space requirements of the prior art retriever and storage unit which will retain its benefits but eliminate its drawbacks.